194 THE DOWNFALL OF THE DERVISHES the edge of a £hor on the outskirts of Omdurman, The water of this inlet was thick and yellow, and in the shallower parts dead animals — horses, mules, and donkeys — lay about in various stages of decay. Nevertheless, the thirsty troops rushed down the bank and drank greedily of the foul water. The want of self-control and common sense at this £4or may quite well be partly responsible for the large number of typhoid cases which subsequently occurred. As I thought that ten minutes more of dry throat and parched lips were better than the chance of enteric fever, I walked down to the Nile.

Here I found Captain Ricardo, Lord Tullibardine, and one or two others sitting under the scanty shade of a mud-hut, where I joined them after some tremendous draughts of running water, drunk out of a calabash which I had cut from the neck of a dead Dervish. Lord Tullibardine kindly gave me some brandy to flavour the water, and Captain Ricardo recounted the good deeds of the “Gyppy” cavalry. Then we all lay at full length and indulged in a little siesta.